Lonely Road
by Thought
Summary: The Maru crew, (including Tyr) break away from Dylan and Andromeda. However, Rommie may be part of a much larger picture...


Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters are not mine. And I will only state this fact once, thank you very much.  
  
A/N: Well, I was going to wait until I was finished this story before posting, but then I started to wonder if it was really any good, and if people would even be interested. So please, please review!  
  
*^*^*^  
  
Lonely Rode  
  
Part One: Breakaway  
  
By: Thought  
  
The streets were dark, and the icy rain, which poured down in buckets, wasn't exactly helping in the comfort department. As she jogged along the rough pavement, Beka Valentine wondered for the millionth time *why* she was here in the first place. And, just as it had the other nine hundred, ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-ninth times before, the answer came. She was trying to track down the missing child of the leader of the planet Githgorian, to show that the Andromeda really did come in peace. Dylan had spotted the planet a week previous, and immediately set on asking it to join the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the leader, a skittish little man by the name of C-tal, was too paranoid for his own good, and refused to accept that Dylan, with his impressive warship, came in peace.  
  
"Damn them all," muttered Beka. "When I get back to the Andromeda, Dylan's gonna..." Her growled threats were cut off by a violent coughing spasm that wracked her body. Gasping for breath, she leaned against a nearby wall, desperately trying to get the coughing under control. Her chest ached mercilessly, and she could feel her entire body vibrating with tension and stress. If she didn't rest soon, she knew that she would simply collapse from lack of sleep. Her head pounded, and she wanted nothing more than to return to the ship and sleep for the next year. Of course, she knew that wouldn't happen until she was able to track down the child. Squaring her shoulders resignedly, she headed onwards, calling the child's name into the rushing wind, her feet splashing in the murky puddles as she walked.  
  
After over an hour of walking, she still had found no sign of the missing child, and was becoming increasingly furious at the universe, and Captain Dylan Hunt, in particular. Finally deciding that if she stayed out any longer she would most likely just fall down and die, she turned back towards the spaceport where the Maru was docked. It was a long walk, over two hours, and by the time she had returned, she was practically dead on her feet. Her mind was in a sort of gray fog, and her body was operating on autopilot. Luckily, she could enter the pass code to her ship in her sleep, so getting inside wasn't a problem. As soon as the door hissed shut behind her, she allowed herself to slide down the wall to lie in a crumpled heap on the floor.  
  
"Hey, Boss!" a chipper voice called from somewhere above her. She looked up to find Harper standing over her, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I'm guessing' you didn't have any luck finding the kid?"  
  
She glared up at him. "Very good, did you figure that out all by yourself?"  
  
He rolled his eyes, and pouted. "Sure...pick on Harper, I only save your butt, um, how many times a week? And it's not like I'm a, oh, say a genius, or anything," he plopped down on the floor beside her.  
  
"Harper?" she said, dropping her head back to the floor, "If you insist on being so cheerful and hyper, could you please go do it somewhere else?"  
  
He shook his head. "It's not that big of a ship, ya know? Not like the Andromeda."  
  
"...And did you figure that out all by yourself, too, boy?" came a new voice. Beka and Harper glanced up in unison to see Tyr Anasazi staring down at them, with an excellently perfected expression of boredom.  
  
"Hey, Tyr!" Harper jumped up, still not even coming up to the taller Neitzschean's shoulder.  
  
Tyr ignored him, instead speaking directly to Beka. "You look like hell."  
  
Startled by this uncharacteristically blunt statement from Tyr, Beka managed to force herself into a sitting position. "Why thank you! I didn't know you cared."  
  
"You have been out for the last eight hours, and you still have not found anything?" he asked, jumping topics so quickly, that she had to focus all her remaining brainpower on following his words.  
  
"Well, if you people would actually consider *helping* me, instead of sitting around doing nothing, we might have found her by now, and C-tal would have agreed to join the Commonwealth, and Dylan would be happy, and my life would be a lot easier!" she glared up at him defiantly.  
  
"I'm sure you have everything under control, Captain Valentine. I would not want to interfere," Tyr smirked slightly, his deep, rich, cultured voice adding just the right amount of amusement to his words.  
  
"Don't patronize me, Tyr, I'm *really* not in the mood right now. In fact, if you would be kind enough to leave me alone, I would be forever grateful."  
  
He stared at her for a long moment, before shaking his head, causing his black dreadlocks to slide across his back. "And leave you sprawled out on the floor of your ship, sick with the Divine knows what, and free to spread those germs to others on the ship?"  
  
She tried, and failed to cover her snort of laughter. "*Others* being you, I expect?" she went on without waiting for an answer. "Of course. That's what makes you different, better than us Humans, right? You've been genetically engineered to think of your own survival. Genetic purity, all that crap, am I right? And was the arrogance part of the original package, or was that just one of the bonus features? Yeah, in the end we're all Human, Tyr. Nietzscheans are just an offshoot. You know, if you really look at it, we're better, not you. We were the founding species, the roots of the tree, the beginnings, without us you wouldn't exist..." She knew, in some very small part of her subconscious that she was babbling, but at the moment she didn't really care that much.  
  
Apparently, however, Tyr did. "Rebecca, would you please refrain from insulting every little detail of my people?" Though the question was put innocently enough, Beka still managed to figure out that it probably wasn't a great idea to insult the much larger, much stronger man standing over her. She knew that she could usually stand her own in a fight against him, but in her condition right now, she doubted if she could win against Harper.  
  
A purple blur bounced down the corridor towards them. "Hi, guys!" Trance Gemini sounded almost as perky as Harper.  
  
"Heya, Trance," Beka called. Silently, she wondered why everyone had suddenly gotten it into their minds to come and greet her.  
  
"Beka, you don't look that good," Trance commented, kneeling down beside her captain and running a scanner over her.  
  
"I didn't need you to tell me that," Beka muttered.  
  
Trance looked hurt. "Sorry," she tried, putting the scanner away.  
  
"It's fine Trance, I shouldn't have... I'm just tired..." A fit of coughs shuttered through her.  
  
"You should get some sleep," Trance told her.  
  
"Mmm, knew that, too. I'll jus' sleep here tnight, k?" Beka could feel her last vestiges of energy leaving her rapidly, and the cool floor of the Maru felt nice against her feverish skin.  
  
She thought she heard Trance and Tyr talking about something, but after a minute of trying to focus on it, she decided that it really couldn't be all that important, and stopped listening. A few minutes later, she felt the sharp prick of a needle in her neck, and the thought that she was going to have to kill Trance for giving her drugs flitted across her mind. And then two strong arms lifted her, and she nestled against the warm chest of whoever was holding her. From where her head rested on his shoulder, she could make out bone blades on his arms, and her mind automatically connected this with a Nietzschean, and then directly with Tyr. The next time she woke up, it was to her warm bed.  
  
*^*^*^  
  
She didn't want to wake up. In fact, she would have paid large amounts of money for a few more hours of sleep. However, it seemed that her body had different ideas, and so she found herself lying wide awake in bed no more than four hours after falling asleep. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she slowly pulled herself from under the blankets, and gathered some clothes to take into the bathroom with her. After a long, drawn out shower, she slipped into a pair of black leather pants and a black top, with silver symbols woven into the sides, and a window in the fabric on the small of her back. Brushing her blond hair back out of her face, she regarded her reflection in the mirror. She still looked exhausted, and the dark circles under her eyes had faded only marginally. Growling with frustration, Beka rummaged through her makeup bag, coming out with a bottle of cover-up. Absently noting that she would have to buy more soon, she carefully applied the powder to her cheeks. Finished, she gave her reflection one more glance. Frowning, she ran a finger through her hair. Tilting her head to the side, she closed her eyes and changed her hair color to a deep brown. Not liking this, she ran through a few more colors. Black?...no, too much like Tyr. Red?...nope, too much like her mother's hair, and she did *not* need to go there right now. Pink?...definitely not. Finally, she settled on a light shade of blue; it would shock everyone, at least.  
  
When she entered the small Command area, there turned out to be not many people to shock. In fact, the only person there was Rev Bem, and he was used to her moods, and wouldn't bat an eye at her new style.  
  
"Heya, Rev," she called, strolling over. Her best friend glanced up, and smiled at her.  
  
"Hello, Beka. Shouldn't you be sleeping?"  
  
She shrugged, and perched on the consol beside him. "I woke up?" She really didn't need a lecture on how she was putting unnecessary stress on herself, (she already knew she'd get it from Trance).  
  
Luckily, he seemed to accept this answer, and turned back to what he was working on. She watched as his claws danced with surprising ease across the buttons on the workstation. Her eyes traveled up to the screen, and she arched an eyebrow.  
  
"What's that?" she asked curiously, sliding down to crouch on the floor beside his chair, leaning her head on one of his fur covered arms.  
  
"It's ancient Earth Dutch," he explained. "Harper found it in the Githgorian museums, and borrowed the scripture to find out what it said."  
  
Beka sincerely doubted that Harper had *borrowed* the scripture, but said nothing of it. "K...what would an ancient language from Earth, of all places, be doing on such a nice planet as this?" She could have come up with a much more descriptive adjective, but her brain wasn't quite awake yet.  
  
Rev shrugged. "I have no idea, which is why I am trying to figure out the language, to find out what it says."  
  
"Trust Harper to be interested in something like that," sighed Beka. "Why bother finding things from Earth? All it is is a rotting trash heap overrun with slaves and slave drivers."  
  
"It's also Harper's home," Rev turned to regard her. "No matter how hard his life there was, everyone still needs a place to call home. For you it is the Maru, for Trance, it seems to be anywhere with plants, and for Harper it is Earth."  
  
Beka sighed. "And then there's people like you, and Dylan and Tyr who don't have a home. I mean, Dylan's home vanished three hundred years ago, (it's not even his proper time anymore), and Tyr's entire planet destroyed by a nuclear winter, and you unable to return to your home because of the awful things the rest of your people have done."  
  
"I think Dylan is coping quite well, considering his circumstances, and he has Andromeda to help him through it. And of course Tyr is already trying to build up a new Kodiak Pride, on a new planet. As for myself, I think I have began to regard the Maru as my home."  
  
Beka smiled warmly at her friend, and impulsively hugged him. Drawing back, she turned to the panel. "So, can I see the original text?"  
  
Rev nodded, and tapped in a quick sequence.  
  
Moog het kind van de maan behalve ons iedereen en moog wij iedereen stijgt tot geweldige de zon als het verbrandt. Helder als vuur, koude als bewatert, wij stijgt iedereen en wij iedereen valt. Om antwoord te vinden, moet u vallen.  
  
Beka stared blankly at the words. "O...k..." she shrugged. "You have fun with that."  
  
Just then, the doors to Command opened, and Tyr, Trance and Harper entered. "Beka! You should still be sleeping!" Trance rushed over to the other woman, looking for all the world like a scolding mother. Admittedly, a scolding *purple* mother, with blond, purple and pink hair, and a tale, wearing clothing that most places wouldn't consider legal, but still, she managed to pull it off quite well. Unfortunately, Beka already had the image of the purple pixie in an apron, holding a dripping spoon in one hand, a dustpan in the other, yelling at a line of small children. She tried to look chastised as Trance told her all the bad things that could happen to her if she overworked herself, but it was incredibly hard.  
  
"Transmission from the Andromeda," Rev spoke up suddenly, cutting off Trance in the middle of her diatribe. Gratefully, Beka hopped up from her position on the floor, and strode over to the communications panel. She hit the large button marked, very clearly, 'receive', and Dylan's face popped up on the monitor, with Rommie, (the Andromeda's avatar), standing in the background.  
  
"Hey, Dylan," Beka said, waving her crew over, knowing that they would try to listen in anyways.  
  
"Hello, Beka. I have some good news!"  
  
From somewhere behind her and to her right, she heard Harper's muttered, "Uh oh."  
  
"What is it?" she asked.  
  
"T-Cal's daughter was found about an hour ago by the local police. She's safe and sound at home, and T-Cal has agreed to join the Commonwealth!"  
  
Beka stared at the screen. "But..." she prompted.  
  
"But," Dylan seemed to brace himself, "He gave us some very rare metals and crystals, worth quite a bit of money, as a show of good will. Now I get the feeling he wants something in return, so, well, they're very short on ships, and, I, erm, I promised them the Maru."  
  
Dead silence met his words. Finally, Beka spoke. "You did *what*?"  
  
"Look I know it's special to you, but I can get you another ship! Faster, better, more...shiny...then that old thing."  
  
Beka's eyes flashed. "This ship is my life! I was born here, I grew up here, I've lived here my entire life! And you think you can just take it away like that?! I can't believe this. We agreed to work for you, help you restore your Commonwealth after Three *hundred* years, because we felt sorry for you. We were willing to show compassion! And this is what we get in return?"  
  
Dylan glared. "Don't kid yourself! You and your crew had nothing better to do! This was the best offer that had come along for years! And Tyr was a *mercenary*! You really think he did it out of the kindness of his heart? You said it yourself, you all have your own agendas! The Andromeda was just a nice way to complete them! And it's not like you're going to find anything better."  
  
Beka took a long, deep breath. "Fine. We'll be there within the hour."  
  
Rommie looked sadly at them all, and gave a little wave. Beka stared into the android's eyes, silently asking, and getting a sorrowful refusal in answer. And again, Beka wondered how such a wonderful, sensitive person such as Rommie, (even though she was an android), could fall in love so deeply with a man like Dylan Hunt. He was idealistic, always ready to be the hero, sure in his dream, and not letting anything get in his way. He could never understand the new world he had been dropped into, not really. Things had changed in three hundred years, and he just couldn't adapt. And, she thought, it wasn't like he was very attractive, at least, not when compared to, say, Tyr. Sure, Dylan had that innocent, blond good boy look going for him, as Harper had once described him, like a Greek god, but Tyr, with his tall, powerfully muscled, graceful...she cut off the thoughts before they could go any further.  
  
"Good, I'll see you in an hour, then. Hunt out." His face vanished from the screen, and Beka turned to her crew. Dylan had always called them 'their crew', his and hers, but she knew deep down that they would follow her, not Dylan if it came to a standoff. Harper, Rev and Trance had been with her long before they had rescued Dylan and Andromeda, and after spending time with him aboard Andromeda, she had added Tyr to their little family.  
  
"Does anyone have anything incredibly important on the Andromeda?" she asked. They all shook their heads. Beka nodded, and walked to the pilot's chair.  
  
"Rev, take sensors. Tyr, you've got weapons, Harper get back to engineering, and Trance, you've got Environmentals. Let's go."  
  
As the ship moved out into the blackness of space, Beka allowed her gaze to rest on the Andromeda, the place which she had spent the last one and half years of her life.  
  
"Bye, Rommie," she whispered. After one last long second, she spun back to her controls, and called out, "Streaming in three, two, one!" As the ship entered the slipstream, she let her mind be pulled into the task of piloting, rolling her little ship with perfect accuracy through the stream like the wonderful pilot she knew she was. Here, all her problems were chased away, and she could be free.  
  
Part Two: Something Akin To Normalcy  
  
She found Harper in a conduit above the slip core, later that day. He stuck his head out, looked down at her, and grinned.  
  
"Heya, Boss," he called down. She looked up at him and sighed.  
  
"Harper? What are you doing to my ship?"  
  
He jumped down, hitting the floor with a thump, and springing right back up to his feet. "Oh, just fixing some stuff, you know, the usual? Don't worry, I'm not hurting your baby."  
  
She sighed. "We're gonna make a stop at Infinity," she told him.  
  
His eyes widened, and the biggest grin she had seen on his face in a long time broke out. "Wooooo!! Surfing season's just around the corner, too! This is great. I can get in some real good time on the waves, and maybe pick up a hot babe while I'm at it! No one can resist the Harper!"  
  
Beka rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, the Harper is good, I know. Just, don't get into any trouble, Seamus."  
  
He gave her the puppy dog look. The one that made you feel as if you'd just kicked the most innocent little dog in the known worlds, for no good reason. She hated that look. "Me? Get into trouble? Beka, I'm deeply wounded by your obvious lack of faith in your ever faithful engineer! Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you didn't trust me!"  
  
She punched him lightly in the arm. "Of course I trust you, Harper, just not enough to let you loose on Infinity alone. Trance is going with you wherever you go, got it? And don't try to get rid of her, or I'll drag your butt back here so fast it'll get friction burns."  
  
"Does the girl *know* that she will be accompanying him everywhere he goes?" asked Tyr from behind her. She jumped three feet in the air, landed painfully on her ankle, glared at Harper, who was laughing hysterically, and spun on Tyr.  
  
"Where the *hell* did you come from?" she demanded, glaring at him.  
  
"Command," he stated with a perfectly straight face.  
  
She clenched her teeth, took a handful of deep breaths, and walked away. She pushed passed Tyr, ignored Harper's manic giggling, and managed to get all the way to her bunk before slamming her fists into the wall.  
  
"What was he thinking?!" Beka demanded of Trance, walking beside the purple girl down the halls to the prison cells on Infinity Atoll. Trance merely shrugged.  
  
"He said it was totally harmless gambling," she told Beka.  
  
"And you believed him?!" Beka stared incredulously. "This is Harper we're talking about, here! Nothing is harmless, innocent, benevolent, or any other adjective you may want to come up with, when it is done by Harper! You should know that by now. Who knows who he was gambling with, what he was gambling for, or *why* he was doing it! For the sake of The Divine, we can't even be sure that he was really gambling! How drunk was he? I mean, I know I gave him a set limit, but I'd bet money on the fact that the kid didn't listen! And if I have to use valuable money that we could use on parts to pay his bale, I will not be happy! He'd better have a really, really good explanation for all of this, or he's never leaving the ship again! And I warned him, too! Tyr can attest to that, he was there! He heard me give Harper the rundown, I know it! He was doing some sort of spyish...prowling, 'sneak up on people and scare them to death'...Tyr thing! He was standing right behind me when I told Harper not to get into any trouble! In fact, I made that extremely clear to him, but apparently he can't listen! And I never got another chance to really drill it into his little head, because Tyr was standing there, and he was being all Neitzscheanish, and I was really getting distracted, and I had to get out of there before I killed one of them...arg!" The captain was silent after this, and Trance deemed it safe to speak.  
  
"Beka?" She tried tentatively. "Are you ok?"  
  
Beka nodded, quite obviously trying to reign in her anger and frustration for the benefit of her companion. "I'm sorry, Trance. I guess I kinda lost it there, didn't I?"  
  
Trance nodded. They walked in silence the rest of the way to Harper's cell. He was sitting on the floor, and he bounced to his feet as soon as he saw the two women approaching.  
  
"Hi! My two most favorite ladies ever!" Seeing the look on Beka's face, he deflated slightly. "Look, Boss, I can explain...really..."  
  
She placed her hands on her hips. "Well?"  
  
He pouted. "Can't you let me out, first?"  
  
"Depends, I haven't paid your bale yet, you know? I'm waiting for a really, really good reason to let you out." He stared at her, dumbstruck. Beka sat back, willing to let him squirm. She noted that she had neglected to inform Harper that Tyr and Rev were paying his bail at that very moment. For about half a second, she considered that this might be considered crewel, but quickly dismissed the thought.  
  
It was dark, cold and she was alone. A sharp wind blew at her, and rain pounded into her face. Slowly, Beka realized where she was, and began to swear violently. She was on Githgorian, looking for C-Tal's daughter. She couldn't see a thing in the blackness, and the ground beneath her feet was flat, hard and uniform, stretching out for as far as she felt out with her feet in all directions. Her hair and clothing clung to her damp skin, and she had to keep her eyes half-lidded to protect them against the stinging, bighting rain.  
  
"Je-Lor!" she called out the girl's name, but her voice was obscured by the pounding rain and the rushing wind. Again she called, and again there was no reply.  
  
She began to walk forward, hands out in front of her, feeling for any obstructions in her way. Her breath was coming out in little gasps, and she could feel a cold sweat joining the water on her skin. She moved on through the storm for what seemed like hours, and yet it was as if she hadn't moved an inch from where she had started. And then, finally, a voice called back to her from somewhere ahead.  
  
"Help me!" It was a child's voice, and Beka felt a surge of relief at having found the missing girl. Fighting her way forward against the suddenly powerful wind, she stumbled over the small form on the wet ground.  
  
"Je-Lor?!" she gasped out, falling to her knees beside the slight form. Feeling around on the ground, she found the girl's hand, and held it tightly. "Are you ok? Your father sent me to find you. You're safe, now."  
  
A flash of lightning lit the otherwise black sky, and Beka got a good look at the girl in front of her. It was Rommie. Or at least, a smaller version of her.  
  
"Rommie?" Beka pulled the cold little hand towards her, desperate for another flash of lightning.  
  
"I'm sorry, Beka," said the Rommie duplicate, still in a child's voice. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen, really! Promise you'll make it better? Promise you'll fix it."  
  
"I don't understand!" Beka tried desperately to see the child's face. "Explain it to me! I'm sorry, I don't understand ! What am I supposed to fix?"  
  
"I have to save everyone! I failed! Please, help me? I'm scared, Rocket..." The wind howled, and Beka held even tighter to Rommie/Je-Lor's hand, as she considered how she knew the pet name that only her dead father and her uncle had ever called her.  
  
"Please, can we try this once more?" Beka sighed. "I'm sorry, I don't understand! Why did you fail?"  
  
It seemed, though, that Rommie was done giving any coherent answers. "Sorry...failed...no good...no... Het kind van de maan heeft verzuimd. And then she looked directly at Beka, illuminated by another brilliant flash of lightning. "Promise!"  
  
"I promise!" Beka answered before she could think about it. The little girl relaxed almost immediately, and allowed her head to fall back onto the ground.  
  
"Thank you, Rocket. I can go, now." And with that, she was gone, leaving Beka alone in the swirling wind and rain, sitting curled up on the hard ground.  
  
Beka woke up in a cold sweat, her entire body shaking. Looking up at the ceiling above her bunk, she managed to draw in some slow breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. She didn't know what the dream had been trying to tell her, if anything, but it had deeply disturbed her. Deciding that she would get no more sleep that night, she got up to find herself some coffee.  
  
She was wondering through the ship, without any real destination, about a week after her nightmare, when she heard the soft, sweet strains of someone singing. She knew immediately that it had to be Trance. Curious, and drawn by the gentle melody, she followed the sound to just outside of the engine room. She was close enough to hear the words now, and Trance was just starting a knew song.  
  
"... Eurus...  
  
... Afer Ventus...  
  
So the world goes round and round  
  
With all you ever knew –  
  
They say the sky high above  
  
Is Caribbean Blue...  
  
... If every man says all he can,  
  
If every man is true,  
  
Do I believe the sky above  
  
Is Caribbean Blue...  
  
... Boreas...  
  
... Zephyrus...  
  
... If all you told was turned to gold,  
  
If all you dreamed were new,  
  
Imagine sky high above  
  
In Caribbean Blue...  
  
... Eurus...  
  
Afer Ventus...  
  
... Boreas  
  
Zephyrus...  
  
... Africus..."  
  
When Trance had finished, she heard light clapping from someone who could only be Harper. "Wow, my Purple Pixie, that was amazing! Where'd you learn to sing like that?"  
  
"Oh, places," Trance responded. "I found that last song in Andromeda's databanks. It's from old Earth. I'd thought you might like it..."  
  
"It's beautiful, Trance. Uh...thanks," he muttered, and Beka could tell from his voice that he was embarrassed.  
  
"Do you miss Earth, Seamus?" Trance asked.  
  
"No! I mean, why would I miss that hellhole?!" Now Harper was obviously agitated.  
  
"Well, it's your home, and all your family live there," Trance tried.  
  
"Nuh uh, my Purpleness, they *lived* there. They're all dead, now. I have absolutely no reason at all to miss Earth. All that's there are bad memories for me, and look where I am now, anyway! The Maru, and all of you, Beka, Tyr, Rev, you, you're all more than I could have ever dreamed for as a family. I'm happy here."  
  
'Harper is spilling out his heart to Trance?' Beka thought to herself, shaking her head. 'I thought...well, aren't I his kinda sister?' She stared at the door in confusion. "Don't we share everything?"  
  
"You certainly didn't," commented Tyr, resting a hand casually on her shoulder, and guiding her away from the door, and out of earshot of Trance and Harper.  
  
"Divine, Tyr! I swear, if you sneak up on me one more time, I'm going to kill you! And you know what? I won't even try to frame anyone else for it. I'll just pull my gun, aim and fire! You really have to stop creeping up behind me!" She glared up at him.  
  
"I believe you would have heard me coming if you weren't so busy eavesdropping on Trance and Harper," he told her dryly. She opened her mouth to retort, but nothing came out. He was right, damn him. She had been eavesdropping...kind of.  
  
"Look, Tyr, what I do or don't do is none of your business!" she set her jaw determinedly.  
  
"And I don't think that what your engineer and environmental systems officer speak about is any of *your* business." She had known he was going to say it from the moment the words left her mouth. She had walked right into that one, and there was no one to blame but herself.  
  
"Fine, fine. If I promise I'll behave, can I please go? I do have things to do, you know."  
  
"I'm sure that's why you were wondering around the entire ship, humming to yourself and swearing at your dead father, your uncle, Captain Hunt and the universe in general, no more than five minutes ago?" She gave up.  
  
"Ok, Rev, what do'you got?!" Harper was being exceedingly bouncy. He had been like that, in fact, for the last five hours, when Rev had informed him that he was close to figuring out the meaning of the Dutch words on the scripture. It was starting to get on everyone's nerves, Beka's especially. Luckily, Rev had finished, and they were now all sitting around a table in the Maru, waiting with varying degrees of excitement to find out what it said.  
  
"Well," said Rev, sliding a flexi onto the table. "This might not be a very good translation, but it's the best I could do with my limited knowledge, and the Maru's computers." Tyr plucked the flexie off the tabletop and read it out loud.  
  
"May the child of the moon except of us everybody and may we everybody rises till tremendous the sun as it burns. Clearly as fire, cold as a bewatert, we everybody and we rises falls everybody. Answer, you must to find fall."  
  
"What the hell?" Beka stared blankly at the flexie in Tyr's hands.  
  
"I second that," Harper cried angrily. "It makes no sense! It's all mixed up!"  
  
"Well, I did a very literal translation," Rev shrugged.  
  
"It seems you have your little Mystery solved, boy," commented Tyr. "Can we get on with our lives, now?"  
  
"Yeah...whatever," Harper didn't seem to care. Tyr rose, dropping the flexie on the table in front of Harper. Rev sent Harper a sympathetic look, before moving from the room. Beka rested a hand on Harper's shoulder.  
  
"Hey, you ok?" she asked softly.  
  
He brushed her hand off absently. "Yeah, 'm fine. Don't worry." She frowned, but before she could press him further, Tyr grasped her arm and firmly moved her out of the room, leaving Harper and Trance sitting beside each other at the table, talking quietly. Before she was forced away from the door, Beka saw Harper let a tear slip down his cheek, and Trance catch it on her fingertip. And then Tyr pulled her away and towards Command, and she tried to ignore the pain of seeing Harper replacing her.  
  
"I do not trust, so I cannot love (can't no man be trusted) Oh no no no..." It was Beka singing, this time. She liked the song. Harper had played it for her a few months after she met him. Ever since finding out that his precious scriptures were no more than some random words stuck together in a basically meaningless pattern, Harper had been drifting in and out of depression. She wanted to talk to him, to help him get through this, like she always did, but Trance seemed to be with him 24/7, and Beka did not want to break up the pair.  
  
"Interesting song," Tyr commented, walking up behind her. He had pointedly made a lot of noise coming up behind her, as not to startle her again. Smart man. He valued his life.  
  
"Yeah..." As much as she wanted someone to talk to, Tyr was not someone she would exactly feel comfortable sharing all of her deepest, darkest secrets with. She had had a hard enough time giving him the codes to the Maru, before she found out that he already had them. Had, in fact, had them for quite a while, and not bothered to tell her.  
  
"Do the lyrics reflect your own emotions, then?" he asked.  
  
'What am I supposed to say to *that*?!' Beka wondered, her step faltering. "Um...I guess," she shrugged noncommittally.  
  
"So, you have never fallen in love?" he pressed. They had both stopped in the corridor, and were facing each other, well within each other's personal space.  
  
"Sure, I've been in love. There was Bobby, and Dyl...some other guys. I've been in love, but none of them have worked out," she combed a hand through her hair, paused, realized that it was a very Harper-like trait, and dropped her hand back to her side.  
  
His gaze intensified. "You are in love with Captain Hunt?"  
  
Her eyes widened, and she backed away, hands up. "Oh no, uh uh, not you too! I'm not in love with him! Absolutely *not*!"  
  
Tyr watched her calmly. "*Were* you in love with him?"  
  
She blinked, fast. "Whaaa?"  
  
He smirked.  
  
"No...I mean, maybe a little crush, I mean, not that I had one, 'cause he's Captain Terrific, and all, and, well, Harper's the one with the crush on Dylan, not me! Believe me, I've got better taste..."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
She stared at him, her eyes wondering over his body. Pulling herself together, she shook her head. She needed sleep. If she didn't get sleep, she would most likely end up shooting someone, and she was pretty sure that wouldn't go over well with everyone else. She told him so. "I need sleep." And she bolted past him without a backwards glance.  
  
"Good night to you too, Rebecca," he called after her down the hall. She fell asleep, and dreamt of killing T yr. Then she dreamt of other things involving Tyr, and a lot of kissing. She awoke, very, very disturbed for the second time in the month.  
  
*^*^*^  
  
A/N: Well? Please review! 


End file.
